Agartala, July 8 (TIWN) : Aiming to provide best possible treatment to the HIV positive carrier or AIDS patients, the Central government has sanctioned a proposal of setting up two Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) Centres in the state.

Following request from the State AIDS Control Society (SACS), the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has given its consent to establish two ART at Kulai District hospital and Dharmanagar subdivisional hospital, said an official of SACS here today.

The works for establishing ART would start very shortly as the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has sanctioned the proposals during 2014-15 FY.

As of now, the only ART which is assigned to render treatment to HIV positive carrier or AIDS patients is housed at GBP Hospital.

HIV positive cases have been increased from 184 in 2012-13 FY to 225 in 2014-15 FY in the state but the positivity rate is still very low- .33 percent which means one HIV positive case in every 300 people.

As per the Central government sponsored survey, the HIV positivity rate in Tripura is even less that of SACS prepared observation.

The HIV Sentinel Surveillance, a study conducted by the Health Ministry, suggests Tripura’s HIV positivity rate stands at .019 percent it means one HIV positive case in each 500 people.

In Tripura, a total of 464 AIDS patients are under ART treatment.

Besides, the SACS has decided to expend its network by setting up Integrated Counselling and Testing Centre (ICTC) to identify more AIDS or HIV positive cases.

Currently, the state has 19 ICTCs to detect and giving counselling to the people afflicted with the deadly disease.

“We plan to set up three ICTCs at Santir Bazar, Bishramganj and Jirania to enhance the identification mechanism. One Counsillor and one Lab Technician will be posted in each ICTC for preliminary identification of HIV positive cases”, he said.